Cherry Tree Nursery

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

The provision is good

Children feel valued and included at this welcoming nursery. The warm and caring staff team create a strong sense of community and celebrate each child's unique background and experiences.

Children come in eagerly and quickly join in activities. There is a calm and happy atmosphere that helps children feel safe and secure. Children quickly grow in confidence and become more independent.

They learn useful skills that help prepare them for their future learning. They find their own boots when they want to play outside and help themselves to tissues to blow their nose. At lunchtime, older children serve themselves and scr...ape their plates when they have finished.

Children understand staff's clear expectations for their behaviour and are familiar with the daily routines. For example, they go to wash their hands when they arrive without any prompting. Children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) benefit from carefully thought-out plans and strategies to help close any gaps in their learning.

Staff act quickly to seek additional funding, where needed, and work closely with other professionals. They know each child well. Children with SEND enjoy well-planned, small-group or individual time with staff, which helps support their language and social skills.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

The management team has successfully raised the quality of the provision since the last inspection. Staff working with babies are now a strong team. They share tasks and responsibilities efficiently, so that all babies receive consistent support with both their learning and care needs.

Staff have developed their skills in extending children's mathematical understanding. Children use mathematics confidently. They count as they share out fruit and compare size and shape as they cut up broccoli and carrots in the home corner.

There are good relationships throughout the nursery. Children cooperate as they take turns to roll balls along guttering and try to catch them as they come out the other end. They persevere with difficult tasks, patiently working out how to fit the train track together.

When children find it difficult to manage their emotions, staff support them with kindness and sensitivity. Children quickly learn how to use the sand timer to wait for their turn.Staff offer a broad and interesting curriculum that supports children's communication and language skills particularly well.

They listen carefully to children and give them time to express their thoughts and ideas. Babies enjoy songs, eagerly holding their 'bun' from the baker's shop. They learn new words as they join in with the familiar phrases.

Older children are keen to share their views at group time. They listen intently to stories and are excited to sing the words to a favourite song.Staff plan small-group activities well to support children's individual needs.

For example, when staff identify that some children need help to sit still and listen, they plan an engaging session, where children listen closely to the different sounds musical instruments make. At times, however, staff do not fully consider how to use more general activities to build on what children can already do and help them gain new skills and knowledge. For example, children are proud of the pictures they create using coloured pasta and glue, but staff are not always sure what this adds to children's existing learning.

Therefore, on occasion, staff do not make full use of opportunities to extend children's learning and help them make the best possible progress.Staff offer children many opportunities to share their lives and experiences and broaden their understanding of the world. They learn simple words that children use in their home languages, so they can respond to their questions and requests.

Children find out about how they are similar to their friends and the ways that they are different. For example, they look at books written in different languages and learn about how other children celebrate at home.Parents speak highly of the nursery and value staff's friendly approach.

Staff communicate with parents well on a day-to-day basis and share useful information about children's learning and care. They make good use of additional funding to help develop their partnership with parents. For instance, they have introduced a book loan project for some families.

However, not all parents benefit from the same consistent support to help them continue their children's learning at home.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.There is a strong focus on keeping children safe at the nursery.

Staff and managers have a robust knowledge of how to recognise and report a broad range of safeguarding issues. Managers take prompt action to escalate any concerns about a child's welfare. Staff make daily checks of the environment to ensure it is safe for children to play in.

They complete thorough risk assessments to review practice following any incidents. There are rigorous recruitment processes in place to ensure that all staff are suitable for their role.

What does the setting need to do to improve?

To further improve the quality of the early years provision, the provider should: support staff to focus even more precisely on the skills and knowledge they want children to gain from activities, and how best to build on children's prior learning build further on parent partnerships to provide more consistent support for all parents to continue children's learning at home.